A Career Change into OSINT?

We’re often asked how people find their way into Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), how they stay connected to the community, and keep growing in a field that doesn’t follow a straight line. In this blog, one of our longest-serving employees at OSINT Combine, Emerald, shares her path into OSINT — a reminder that there is no single way into this field, and there’s certainly no linear path once you’re in it. She reflects on navigating change, finding her footing, and discovering a discipline where curiosity and purpose can actually reshape a career.

It echoes a theme we also explored in our podcast episode with Ritu Gill, longtime OSINTer and President of the OSMOSIS Association, who spoke about community, mentoring, and the many non-traditional paths people take into OSINT. (Give it a listen!)

Together, these perspectives show why OSINT thrives on diverse experiences, and why there’s room for many stories in this space. With thanks to Emerald and Ritu for generously sharing their insights. We’d love to see others in the community share their own path into OSINT. Our community grows stronger when we share where we’ve come from and where we’re headed next. And, who knows, your journey into OSINT might be exactly the story someone else needs to hear.

~ Jane van Tienen, Chief Intelligence Officer, OSINT Combine.

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A Career Change into OSINT?

~By Emerald Sage

Change is inevitable, but how we respond to it defines what happens next. Some changes can arrive gently while others arrive as loss, forcing us to re-evaluate everything we thought we knew about purpose and control. Before my career even began, I learned that not all change can be shaped to our advantage. But our reaction which encompasses our ability to absorb, adapt, and eventually transform can become a source of strength.

I didn’t realise it at the time, but that lesson would eventually guide me from a traditional government intelligence career into the world of open-source intelligence (OSINT), a field built on disruption, curiosity, and the courage to see things differently.

Know your Disruptor Potential

When I was 19, my younger sister passed away after a long illness. It was one of those life events that rearranges you from the inside out. It taught me that change is inevitable and there are some changes you can't influence to your advantage. However, you can always control your response.

That became a defining theme of my career. Even before I knew the word ‘OSINT’, I was already learning how to live and work in a way that challenged the status quo, created new systems, ideas, and opportunities. I was learning to become a quiet disruptor.

Evaluate Your Career So Far

I began my professional journey in a government intelligence agency. Intelligence is one of the world’s oldest professions. Steeped in legacy and tradition, it is frequently perceived as resistant or slow to change.

In the aftermath of September 11, intelligence professionals around the world were told to think differently, share more, and move faster. Yet, as I discovered, systemic change rarely comes easily to institutions built on caution. Intelligence officers are trained to question everything, trust nothing, and prepare for the worst. Those traits can create organisational cultures that prize stability over disruption.

In 2010, I worked on a counter-terrorism investigation tracking a group of individuals preparing to travel overseas to join a terrorist organisation. Their communications were sparse by phone, but rich with digital traces across WhatsApp groups, Facebook connections, and location “check-ins” along their route to the front. It was my first glimpse of how the digital world had outpaced traditional intelligence methods.

I began building a case to incorporate OSINT into traditional workflows, explaining IP addresses, data risk, and online indicators to colleagues who’d spent decades in classified environments. Slowly, new capabilities emerged. But each step forward came with resistance, often from those who bore the most responsibility if things went wrong.

Recognise and Define the Need for a Career Change

Years later, becoming a mother brought another major shift. New beginnings are joyful, but they also demand re-alignment. I wanted to be present, but I also wanted work that mattered. Leaving government service felt daunting, the structure, security, and sense of purpose had defined me for a decade. Yet, I knew I had to intentionally absorb this change and turn it into something new.

With little idea of where to start, I did what any analyst would do - I collected data. I scanned LinkedIn and corporate websites, identifying patterns, and noting anomalies. Most of my former colleagues had transitioned into private security roles. But one profile on LinkedIn stood out. A former peer had gone into critical infrastructure. He was thinking differently about the security challenges facing this sector. And he had posted about an OSINT course run by someone named Chris Poulter.

Curious, I jumped down the digital rabbit hole. Chris had recently founded OSINT Combine, a company dedicated to building enduring OSINT capability through training, software and thought leadership. His background in the military likely meant he shared my commitment to serve and protect Australia's national interests and its people. We were going to 'see eye to eye' on the things that mattered. Having started his own business, Chris was a man with courage to try new things - a fellow disrupter changing the OSINT landscape.

I reached out on LinkedIn, expecting silence. Instead, five minutes later, we were booked for a ten-minute Zoom call. The interview became a conversation about purpose, flexibility, and shared values. Within weeks, I had joined OSINT Combine.

Recognise Disruption as a Discipline

OSINT is, by nature, a disruptive discipline. It democratises intelligence, lowering the barriers to access and making information, once the preserve of well-funded government agencies, available to anyone with the right mindset and tools. It challenges hierarchy, secrecy, and rigidity by turning curiosity into capability.

My personality shaped by loss, adaptation, and a willingness to challenge the status quo fit naturally into this world. At OSINT Combine, I was given the opportunity to help design new systems, products, and thought leadership initiatives that anticipated and embraced change. Every dataset, every investigation, every training program was a reminder that information, when ethically harnessed, can change how people see and act in the world.

For Those Considering the Leap

If you’re thinking about a career change into OSINT, here are a few reflections drawn from my own personal story:

• Lean into disruption. OSINT thrives in flux. Platforms, algorithms, and data sources change daily. The best practitioners aren’t those who resist it. They are the ones who embrace it.

• Understand your own disruptive potential. Ask yourself: “What do I challenge instinctively? What do I want to improve?” The best OSINT professionals aren’t just data collectors. They’re critical thinkers who notice what others miss.

• Do your own open-source research on potential employers. Leadership shapes culture. Analyse the company’s leadership. Do their core values align with your own? Analyse patterns. What does the company officially post about?  How do they engage their audience? what do others say about them? The same tradecraft you’d use in investigation can help you choose the right team.

• Trust in courage and curiosity. Sometimes, one cold message can open an entire new world of opportunity.

Closing Reflection

For those standing at the edge of a new beginning, wondering whether to leap remember that disruption is rarely comfortable, but it is almost always transformative. And reach out – I am always happy to take a cold call or connection on LinkedIn.